Showing posts with label soapbox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soapbox. Show all posts

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Another seizure... (and a RANT)

This time I caught the very early part of the seizure. I have never seen Henry in the very first part when the seizure hadnt kicked in. I noticed the crazy eyes first, foaming at the mouth big time, his body reminded me of a dead bent fish, all stiff and curved up. I ran to get my husband right away, by then Henry was in full blown seizure, my husband kept Henry from flying off the sofa. I ran and grabbed the bag of ice. The problem was the ice was in one big frozen lump. I should have broke the ice up right away so it would form to Henry's lower back right away. After I realized it was not working nearly as well as it should, I took the bag of ice and punched it like crazy, the bag came open and some ice came out, but I still had enough ice to work with. I pressed the bag of ice firmly onto his lower back, and presto, the seizure was over. His body is very hot. We have all the windows open and the heat off. We gave him an organic steak. Henry gets an organic steak once a week. This is an $11 steak so it's a rare treat. I think of it as a supplement.

We think it may be the antibiotic (Metronidazole) he is on. He was on this antibiotic a month ago and since then he has been having weekly seizures. We will be getting him on the best probioitic we can find. Then hopefully he will not need antibiotics anymore. Meanwhile, I am not giving him anymore antibiotics till we get ahold of the vet.

editing to add: http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/metronidaz_ad.htm
WHY DIDN'T OUR VET TELL US? I call her every single time Henry has a seizure!
Meanwhile, she has us increasing his seizure meds, when all along this was caused by another med she had prescribed for him! Ack, if I gave my dog every med the vets told me to, Henry would be a mess! It would be, give him metronidazole, this triggers seizures, then give him phenobarbital, this triggers hypothyroidism, then, give him med to control the thyroid, and yada yada yada, meanwhile, the people who makes these meds, are raking in the big bucks while our dogs get sicker and sicker!

Editing agains to add: Please don't take this to mean that I think all medicine is bad. Henry will probably be on Potassium Bromide for the rest of his life. I just think we need to be careful not to overdo it, and we should use them as more of a last ditch solution. Vets and doctors tend to neglect looking at the overall health of our pets, and tend to treat only the symptom, and then our pets get sicker, and then they treat those symptoms, and etc., etc.